‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ recap: Alyssa Edwards comes home to share ‘Snatch Game’ secrets
Last week in Episode 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, 11 queens made it through a “sickening” fashion ball with style icons Law Roach and Hunter Schafer watching their every strut. Determined to keep them on their toes again this week, RuPaul Charles asked them to put their pop culture knowledge and improv skills to the test in “Snatch Game” featuring the legendary Global All Stars icon Alyssa Edwards.
Then, Ru and judges Michelle Visage and Ross Mathews welcome Emmy award winner Quinta Brunson to the dais to serve as guest judge for a “Nailed It!” runway. The contestants still in the running to be named “America’s Next Drag Superstar” at the start of the episode were: Acacia Forgot, Arrietty, Crystal Envy, Jewels Sparkles, Kori King, Lana Ja’Rae, Lexi Love, Lydia B Kollins, Onya Nurve, Sam Star, and Suzie Toot.
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Here is our recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17, Episode 7, titled “Snatch Game,” which aired Friday, Feb. 14 on MTV.
SEE ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ winners list: Every season, plus ‘All Stars’
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“I have done the good, the bad, and the yippee-yi-ki-yay” — Alyssa Edwards
With two design challenges done and dusted, the comedy queens of the season were looking forward to returning to their performance roots this week with their celebrity impersonations. Because of their backgrounds in theater, Onya was looking forward to reaching in to her rolodex to play Eddie Murphy and Suzie planned to rely on the tried and true by taking on Ellen Greene in her role of Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. Suzie explained that she’s performed as Ellen in the past to rave reviews and has even won competitions with the impression. Kori and Lana beefed Suzie up a bit by taunting her over claims that she might win a third challenge, but Suzie recognized that even if the other girls don’t get her humor, there are a lot of people (including possibly RuPaul) that do.
When Ru and Alyssa stopped by the Werk Room to give the queens some pointers on their plans, Alyssa encouraged Lydia, Crystal and Arrietty to “follow [their] yellow brick road” and “add some spice” even if they were taking big risks with their ideas. Lydia was debating between David Lynch and Catherine O’Hara, but Ru was worried that David wouldn’t read well in the challenge. Not comfortable in the comedy space as it is, Arrietty’s Baby Cupid concept was her way of playing to her strengths without going too over the top. Crystal admitted to Ru that she needs to loosen up, which is something Alyssa says she relates to, and so with her impersonation of Nicole Richie, the advice was to “just have fun.”
MTV
“You surprised me!… in a bad way” — Sam Star
In the “Snatch Game” performances, each queen had their opportunity to shine (despite the atypical bloat of 11 queens all snatching at once), but very few of them did. From introductions through to the end, both Lexi as Gilbert Gottfried and Lana as Rosa Parks succumbed to the on-the-spot pressure of volleying with Ru and literally shut down, though in very different ways. Lexi managed to find humor in her inability to come up with responses and hilariously broke character multiple times, but Lana was thrown off by Ru using one of her planned bus jokes and failed to ever recover. Arrietty’s Baby Cupid, Lydai’s David, Acacia’s Trisha Paytas, and Crystal’s Nicole all struggled to stand out in the crowd.
The queens that rose to the top with their impersonations were Jewels as Miss Big Feet, Sam as pageant coach Kim Gravel, Kori as Big Ang, and Onya as Eddie. Though Suzie was incredibly proud of her turn as Ellen, the other queens thought she must have caught a case of drag delusion because none of them considered her as in the running for the win. Suzie was “cautiously optimistic” about her chance at winning again because she brought character until Sam sauntered over to make it known that all of the queens have been talking about how let down they were by what they saw as a lack of jokes. Sam told Suzie that she thought she’d make her laugh more than she did, acknowledging that she may have set everyone’s expectations too high and failed to meet them.
“That baby? This is dark, but I’d abort that baby” — Quinta Brunson
Based on their runway presentations and performances in the “Snatch Game,” Ru sent Acacia, Suzie, Kori, and Lydia backstage as the safe queens of the week. Left on the main stage as the tops were Sam, Jewels and Onya. At the bottom end was Lana, Crystal and Arrietty. It was unclear how close to the top or bottom Lexi was, but the judges all agreed that she “flopped funny” and it was “so truly awful that it rounded the corner back to good again.” Ultimately, Lexi earned safety along with Arrietty, Sam and Jewels. That left Onya as the overall winner (her second of the season) and Lana and Crystal facing the Lip Sync for Your Life as the bottom two.
To secure another week in the competition, Lana and Crystal faced off to Selena Gomez‘s sensual song “Hands to Myself.” At times it appeared as though the two girls were playfully using each other’s presence on stage to enhance their own, but in others they were competing for center stage and crashing in to one another. At one point, Lana hit a split to the ground so hard that her wig flew right off her head. In a a decision that shocked the girls, Crystal was asked to sashay away despite her strong record, including a previous win. That meant that Lana earned her second LSFYL win in a row and once again saved her spot in the competition.
Next time on Drag Race…
Adam Lambert serves as guest judge for a rusical week inspired by The Wizard of Oz.
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